Paralysed with fear the cutie mark crusaders stood in the middle of Fluttershy's living room frozen in place by the mare's almighty stare. For a time they had gained great respect for Fluttershy after that incident with the cockatrice. But foals being the foals they are, the lesson had lain forgotten in the dust they left behind as they returned to the forest once more. As one collective mind they had gained another means of which they could gain their cutie marks. Fluttershy had turned her back for just a moment making ready for that tea party she oh so wanted to have with them. It was plenty of time to be gone and deep into the darkness of the Everfree forest.
"I didn't want to have to do this but you leave me with no choice." Fluttershy sighed in deep resignation. The crusaders collectively gathered sweat on each of their brow as they gulped down in anticipation.
Taking a long moment to take a deep breath Fluttershy began.
"Scootaloo your special talent is riding your scooter Sweetie Belle your special talent is singing and song writing Applebloom your special talent is building and making things everypony has known this for a very long time and we had hoped you would realise already and discover for yourselves but you are clearly too dim to do so and so I tell you now so that you can get these cutie marks already and stop being nuisance!" Fluttershy panted rapidly, her pink mane soaked with litres of sweat.
The crusaders blinked at once at Fluttershy. Then they blinked at each other. And finally blinked to see on each of their flanks their cutie marks. Smiles as wide as mile were beginning to form but Fluttershy made a stop to that.
"There! It's done. It's over, now drink some damn tea and we are going to have a nice and quiet party!" Fluttershy's expression was as fierce as one she made at the night of the grand galloping gala. She was not going to be denied.
Everyone gathered at the table and in silence, drank cold tea and ate hardened cake until it was time to go to bed.
Fluttershy was furious. Her voice echoing through the trees as the fillies ran for their lives. In regular intervals and in increasing decibels Fluttershy's voice grew ever nearer, shouting their name in turn. They just wanted to try one more thing, one more idea but now they would just have to be content to try being cutie mark crusaders, psychomare escapists. The skies were blanketed with dark clouds giving no light to eyes below to see. There were no stars and no moon to light their way as the fillies relied on their natural reflexes to dodge this and that and whatever it was they nearly tripped on. Scootaloo was to no one's surprise ahead of the pack with Applebloom following a few paces behind and Sweetie Belle way back in the horizon and shrinking in view. She screamed after them to wait but there was no stopping. It was every filly for themselves.
Sweetie Belle screamed the loudest she had been. A screaming that had been abruptly cut off, her powerful lungs now useless to her.
"You're going to be mine! All mine!" Fluttershy's laughter echoed in the woods and filtering through the trees. Applebloom denied her insane idea of that nature loving mare being in the trees. And even prayed to Celestia that each root, each out reaching branch or leafy wing was not in fact Fluttershy, lying in wait to pounce and trip or grab her. In her mind she could be anywhere and hence everywhere at once. Using what little reason she held in her, Applebloom concluded that if the inevitable was going to happen she would have a much better chance surviving with numbers to her side. Looking far ahead the orange coat of Scootaloo was still visible to her, even in this darkness. Now all she needed to do was close their distance and... she had no idea. Highest priority was to catch up first and then think up something fancy.
But to her despair Applebloom's body was beginning to fail her, despite her active life style of working on the farm. It made her a very agile and athletic pony like her big sister, but even Applejack had her limits and she was reaching hers. The orange dot in the distance had soon vanished from her sight and Applebloom's gallop had slowed to a trot and then to a power walk, and to a final abrupt halt. There was just something about Scootaloo that made her better than everyone else. She remembered a joke they all made once but perhaps it was true. Scootaloo was probably the biggest chicken out of all of them.
Scootaloo's wings hummed as she used what little force it could provide to propel her run to greater speeds. In a mad dash she found herself swerving, ducking and jumping around everything that got in her way; a display of such agility that would make Rainbow dash proud. But it couldn't last forever, going as fast as she had ever achieved she smacked head first into a tree trunk. Losing herself so that the land of dreams could find her.
Fluttershy had made many friends in the Everfree forest and through them she had eyes and ears that covered a radius of influence as wide as a mile. She knew exactly where the three fillies were and had asked her friends to map out a course for them to run. She was aware that they were utterly blind in the darkness and in their mad dash they'd react to every little thing with as little thought to their meaning. So all she had to do was to make it so that each filly began to slowly curve back until they had made a complete U-turn back towards her cottage. It was just a matter of time with the fillies exhausted and weakened, she would have them. And on their return onto her, they will know fury and hell like they never knew in their lives.
